gulliver's travel resume

A Summary and Analysis of Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

Gulliver’s Travels , first published in 1726 and written by Jonathan Swift (1667-1745), has been called one of the first novels in English, one of the greatest satires in all of literature, and even a children’s classic (though any edition for younger readers is usually quite heavily abridged).

How should we respond to this wonderfully inventive novel? Is it even a ‘novel’ in the sense we’d usually understand that term? Before we launch into an analysis of Gulliver’s Travels and consider some of these questions, it’s perhaps worth recapping the plot (briefly).

Gulliver’s Travels : summary

Gulliver’s Travels is structurally divided into four parts, each of which recounts the adventures of the title character, a ship’s surgeon named Lemuel Gulliver, amongst some imaginary fantastical land.

In the first part, Gulliver is shipwrecked and knocked unconscious on the island of Lilliput, which is inhabited by tiny people. They take Gulliver prisoner, tying him to the ground, and he encounters the rival factions among the Lilliputians, such as the Big Endians and Little Endians, whose enmity started because they disagree over which side of a boiled egg to cut.

Then, he is enlisted into a campaign the Lilliputians are waging against a neighbouring island, Blefuscu. Gulliver drags the enemy fleet ashore so their invasion is foiled, and the Lilliputians honour and thank him – that is, until he refuses to be further drawn into the two countries’ war, at which moment they turn against him. It doesn’t help when he urinates on a fire to help put it out.

Gulliver takes refuge on Blefuscu, until a boat is washed ashore and he uses it to return to England, where he raises money for his family before embarking on a second voyage.

This time, in the second part of Gulliver’s Travels , our hero finds himself in Brobdingnag, a country which is inhabited by giants, rather than miniature people. When his ship runs aground, it is attacked by giants, and Gulliver is taken prisoner and given to the princess of Brobdingnag, a forty-feet-high girl named Glumdalclitch, as her plaything.

After arguing with the King over political matters – with Gulliver defending English attitudes and the King mocking them – Gulliver is picked up by a giant eagle and plopped into the sea, where he is rescued by a ship.

In the third part of the novel, Gulliver finds himself taken prisoner once again, this time by pirates, and taken to the floating island of Laputa. On a nearby island, Balnibarbi, he meets mad scientists and inventors who are engaged in absurd experiments: trying to extract sunbeams from cucumbers, or building a house from the roof down.

On a neighbouring island, Glubbdubdrib, Gulliver meets some magicians who can summon the dead; they summon numerous historical figures for him, including Julius Caesar, Homer, and Aristotle.

After this, on the island of Luggnagg, Gulliver meets the Struldbrugs: creatures who are immortal. However, this simply means they are foolish and weak than old men back in England, because they’ve had much longer to develop more folly and more illnesses.

Gulliver leaves Laputa behind, becoming a ship’s captain and continuing his voyages. Next, he encounters apelike creatures who, when he attacks one of their number, climb a tree and start discharging their excrement upon his head. (Excrement turns up a lot on Gulliver’s Travels , and Swift seems to have been obsessed by it.)

Gulliver is saved from a literal shower of sh … dung by the arrival of a horse, but this turns out to be a horse endowed with reason and language. Indeed, Gulliver soon learns that these horses rule this strange land: the horses, known as Houyhnhnms, are the masters, and the apelike creatures, known as Yahoos, are their semi-wild slaves. What’s more, Gulliver is horrified to learn that the Yahoos bear more than a passing resemblance to him, and to the human form!

What follows in this fourth part of the novel is a lengthy debate between Gulliver and the Houyhnhnms, who repeatedly show up the folly or evil of human behaviour as Gulliver describes it to them: war, money, and the legal system are all calmly but firmly taken apart by the intelligent horses.

However, Gulliver comes to prefer the company of the Houyhnhnms to the Yahoos, especially when he discovers, to his shock, that female Yahoos are attracted to him as one of their own kind. Gulliver resolves to stay with his new equine friends and shun humanity forever. He admires, above all else, the Houyhnhnms’ devotion to reason over baser instincts or desires.

But he is not allowed to stay with them for long. Fearing that he may inspire the Yahoos to rise up against their horsy overlords, they tell him to leave, and Gulliver regretfully builds a boat, is picked up by a Portuguese ship, and makes his way back to England. However, he struggles to readjust to human society, after he has spent time among the Houyhnhnms, and he prefers to pass his time in the company of the horses in his stable.

Gulliver’s Travels : analysis

We often celebrate great works of literature for their generosity of spirit: we talk of Shakespeare’s ‘humanity’, of Wordsworth’s empathy, George Eliot’s humanistic ability to feel for another person. But Swift is in quite a different tradition. He was disgusted by us all with our filthy bodies and rotten, wrong-headed attitudes.

Yet he wrote a great work of literature in Gulliver’s Travels , which tells us much about who we really are, especially through his depiction of the Yahoos, and who we could be, through Gulliver’s conversations with the Houyhnhnms.

Perhaps the key aspect of the novel here is its satire: it means that we can never be sure when Swift is being serious and when he is pulling our leg, when he is inviting us to share Gulliver’s views and when he wishes us to long to clout the silly fool round the head. That, too, is one of the signs of a timeless novel: its multifaceted quality. Gulliver’s Travels has more facets than you can shake a mucky stick at.

The same difficulty of interpretation – or divining authorial intention and meaning – often attends great works of satire. Sir Thomas More’s Utopia (1516), which was probably an influence on Swift and Gulliver’s Travels , is similarly difficult to analyse in terms of its author’s own views. Critics can’t quite agree whether More is pulling the reader’s leg in Utopia or sincerely offering a vision of a perfect world.

There are, however, some clues that much of the book, if not the whole thing, is supposed to be satirical: it’s hard to see the staunchly Roman Catholic More seriously advocating divorce by mutual consent, something that is encouraged in the book, nor is it likely that he was in favour of women priests, very much a feature of More’s looking-glass island republic.

So the same issue probably attends Gulliver’s Travels . Is Gulliver right to view the Houyhnhnms as the pinnacle of rational humanism – something that actual humans should aspire to emulate? Or should we be shocked by the Houyhnhnms’ proposal that the Yahoos should be forcibly sterilised, even exterminated, as a decisively in human attitude towards their fellow living creatures?

Swift’s disgust with his fellow humans was real, especially in the last few decades of his life when he wrote Gulliver’s Travels , but this does not mean he was not acutely aware of the dangers attendant on such misanthropy. It’s one thing to have a dim view of the human race as falling short of what they could achieve; it’s quite another to suggest that, because they succumb to wars and other dangerous follies, they deserve to be wiped from the face of the earth.

It’d be like a satirist writing in the present century suggesting that, because humans have been the main drivers behind climate change, the best thing would be for all human life to be annihilated from the planet. It’d be a solution to the problem (or part of it), but it wouldn’t be a very morally humane one.

And is Swift’s book, for all that, a novel as such? Like Robinson Crusoe , Defoe’s pioneering work published seven years earlier, Gulliver’s Travels presented itself to the reader as a genuine account, recounting four voyages made by Lemuel Gulliver.

Readers embarking on their journey of reading the book in 1726 may well have been forgiven for thinking it a travel book, like the bestselling books by explorers of the day such as William Dampier (who was one of the first to travel to Australia, around whose coast Swift locates the islands of Lilliput and Blefuscu). But then the book takes a fantastical turn and we gradually realise we are in a work of the imagination.

So it’s perhaps best to answer the question ‘is Gulliver’s Travels a novel?’ with a cautious ‘yes … but only if we bear in mind it was written before the word “novel” had even first been applied to works like Gulliver’s Travels .’

3 thoughts on “A Summary and Analysis of Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels”

I heard that the severe-faced Swift claimed to have laughed only twice in his life – once when Tom was swallowed by a cow on stage in Henry Fielding’s “Tom Thumb the Great” (the little man with a great soul – or mirror image of Prime Minister Robert Walpole, aka “The Great Man” – presumably “with a diminutive soul” in Fielding’s satire). I can’t remember the other time Swift laughed. But he can sure get others to do so!

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• Gulliver's Travels

Jonathan Swift

• Literature Notes
• Book Summary
• About Gulliver's Travels
• Character List
• Summary and Analysis
• Part I: Chapter 1
• Part I: Chapter 2
• Part I: Chapter 3
• Part I: Chapter 4
• Part I: Chapter 5
• Part I: Chapter 6
• Part I: Chapter 7
• Part I: Chapter 8
• Part II: Chapter 1
• Part II: Chapter 2
• Part II: Chapter 3
• Part II: Chapter 4
• Part II: Chapter 5
• Part II: Chapter 6
• Part II: Chapter 7
• Part II: Chapter 8
• Part III: Chapter 1
• Part III: Chapter 2
• Part III: Chapter 3
• Part III: Chapter 4
• Part III: Chapter 5
• Part III: Chapter 6
• Part III: Chapter 7
• Part III: Chapter 8
• Part III: Chapter 9
• Part III: Chapter 10
• Part III: Chapter 11
• Part IV: Chapter 1
• Part IV: Chapter 2
• Part IV: Chapter 3
• Part IV: Chapter 4
• Part IV: Chapter 5
• Part IV: Chapter 6
• Part IV: Chapter 7
• Part IV: Chapter 8
• Part IV: Chapter 9
• Part IV: Chapter 10
• Part IV: Chapter 11
• Part IV: Chapter 12
• Character Analysis
• Lemuel Gulliver
• The Lilliputians
• The Brobdingnagians
• The Houyhnhnms
• Character Map
• Jonathan Swift Biography
• Critical Essays
• Philosophical and Political Background of Gulliver's Travels
• Swift's Satire in Gulliver's Travels
• Gulliver as a Dramatis Persona
• Full Glossary for Gulliver's Travels
• Essay Questions
• Practice Projects
• Cite this Literature Note

Gulliver's Travels is an adventure story (in reality, a misadventure story) involving several voyages of Lemuel Gulliver, a ship's surgeon, who, because of a series of mishaps en route to recognized ports, ends up, instead, on several unknown islands living with people and animals of unusual sizes, behaviors, and philosophies, but who, after each adventure, is somehow able to return to his home in England where he recovers from these unusual experiences and then sets out again on a new voyage.

Book I: When the ship Gulliver is traveling on is destroyed in a storm, Gulliver ends up on the island of Lilliput, where he awakes to find that he has been captured by Lilliputians, very small people — approximately six inches in height. Gulliver is treated with compassion and concern. In turn, he helps them solve some of their problems, especially their conflict with their enemy, Blefuscu, an island across the bay from them. Gulliver falls from favor, however, because he refuses to support the Emperor's desire to enslave the Blefuscudians and because he "makes water" to put out a palace fire. Gulliver flees to Blefuscu, where he converts a large war ship to his own use and sets sail from Blefuscu eventually to be rescued at sea by an English merchant ship and returned to his home in England.

Book II: As he travels as a ship's surgeon, Gulliver and a small crew are sent to find water on an island. Instead they encounter a land of giants. As the crew flees, Gulliver is left behind and captured. Gulliver's captor, a farmer, takes him to the farmer's home where Gulliver is treated kindly, but, of course, curiously. The farmer assigns his daughter, Glumdalclitch, to be Gulliver's keeper, and she cares for Gulliver with great compassion. The farmer takes Gulliver on tour across the countryside, displaying him to onlookers. Eventually, the farmer sells Gulliver to the Queen. At court, Gulliver meets the King, and the two spend many sessions discussing the customs and behaviors of Gulliver's country. In many cases, the King is shocked and chagrined by the selfishness and pettiness that he hears Gulliver describe. Gulliver, on the other hand, defends England.

One day, on the beach, as Gulliver looks longingly at the sea from his box (portable room), he is snatched up by an eagle and eventually dropped into the sea. A passing ship spots the floating chest and rescues Gulliver, eventually returning him to England and his family.

Book III: Gulliver is on a ship bound for the Levant. After arriving, Gulliver is assigned captain of a sloop to visit nearby islands and establish trade. On this trip, pirates attack the sloop and place Gulliver in a small boat to fend for himself. While drifting at sea, Gulliver discovers a Flying Island. While on the Flying Island, called Laputa, Gulliver meets several inhabitants, including the King. All are preoccupied with things associated with mathematics and music. In addition, astronomers use the laws of magnetism to move the island up, down, forward, backward, and sideways, thus controlling the island's movements in relation to the island below (Balnibarbi). While in this land, Gulliver visits Balnibarbi, the island of Glubbdubdrib, and Luggnagg. Gulliver finally arrives in Japan where he meets the Japanese emperor. From there, he goes to Amsterdam and eventually home to England.

Book IV: While Gulliver is captain of a merchant ship bound for Barbados and the Leeward Islands, several of his crew become ill and die on the voyage. Gulliver hires several replacement sailors in Barbados. These replacements turn out to be pirates who convince the other crew members to mutiny. As a result, Gulliver is deposited on a "strand" (an island) to fend for himself. Almost immediately, he is discovered by a herd of ugly, despicable human-like creatures who are called, he later learns, Yahoos. They attack him by climbing trees and defecating on him. He is saved from this disgrace by the appearance of a horse, identified, he later learns, by the name Houyhnhnm. The grey horse (a Houyhnhnm) takes Gulliver to his home, where he is introduced to the grey's mare (wife), a colt and a foal (children), and a sorrel nag (the servant). Gulliver also sees that the Yahoos are kept in pens away from the house. It becomes immediately clear that, except for Gulliver's clothing, he and the Yahoos are the same animal. From this point on, Gulliver and his master (the grey) begin a series of discussions about the evolution of Yahoos, about topics, concepts, and behaviors related to the Yahoo society, which Gulliver represents, and about the society of the Houyhnhnms.

Despite his favored treatment in the grey steed's home, the kingdom's Assembly determines that Gulliver is a Yahoo and must either live with the uncivilized Yahoos or return to his own world. With great sadness, Gulliver takes his leave of the Houyhnhnms. He builds a canoe and sails to a nearby island where he is eventually found hiding by a crew from a Portuguese ship. The ship's captain returns Gulliver to Lisbon, where he lives in the captain's home. Gulliver is so repelled by the sight and smell of these "civilized Yahoos" that he can't stand to be around them. Eventually, however, Gulliver agrees to return to his family in England. Upon his arrival, he is repelled by his Yahoo family, so he buys two horses and spends most of his days caring for and conversing with the horses in the stable in order to be as far away from his Yahoo family as possible.

Next About Gulliver's Travels

Gulliver's Travels

By jonathan swift.

• Gulliver's Travels Summary

Gulliver goes on four separate voyages in Gulliver's Travels . Each journey is preceded by a storm. All four voyages bring new perspectives to Gulliver's life and new opportunities for satirizing the ways of England.

The first voyage is to Lilliput, where Gulliver is huge and the Lilliputians are small. At first the Lilliputians seem amiable, but the reader soon sees them for the ridiculous and petty creatures they are. Gulliver is convicted of treason for "making water" in the capital (even though he was putting out a fire and saving countless lives)--among other "crimes."

The second voyage is to Brobdingnag, a land of Giants where Gulliver seems as small as the Lilliputians were to him. Gulliver is afraid, but his keepers are surprisingly gentle. He is humiliated by the King when he is made to see the difference between how England is and how it ought to be. Gulliver realizes how revolting he must have seemed to the Lilliputians.

Gulliver's third voyage is to Laputa (and neighboring Luggnagg and Glubdugdribb). In a visit to the island of Glubdugdribb, Gulliver is able to call up the dead and discovers the deceptions of history. In Laputa, the people are over-thinkers and are ridiculous in other ways. Also, he meets the Stuldbrugs, a race endowed with immortality. Gulliver discovers that they are miserable.

His fourth voyage is to the land of the Houyhnhnms , who are horses endowed with reason. Their rational, clean, and simple society is contrasted with the filthiness and brutality of the Yahoos , beasts in human shape. Gulliver reluctantly comes to recognize their human vices. Gulliver stays with the Houyhnhnms for several years, becoming completely enamored with them to the point that he never wants to leave. When he is told that the time has come for him to leave the island, Gulliver faints from grief. Upon returning to England, Gulliver feels disgusted about other humans, including his own family.

Gulliver’s Travels Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for Gulliver’s Travels is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift

Swift used exaggeration, parody, and irony to satirize politics and the human nature. Blind adherence to traditions without reflection is what he criticizes through caricature. In this way, in Lilliput, Gulliver becomes a giant in comparison with...

How old is Guillver?

An additional preface, attributed to Gulliver, added to a revised version of the work is given the fictional date of April 2, 1727, at which time Gulliver would have been about 65 or 66 years old.

What does Gulliver do with his penknife?

He cuts the strings that the rabble ringleaders were bound with.

Study Guide for Gulliver’s Travels

Gulliver's Travels study guide contains a biography of Jonathan Swift, literature essays, a complete e-text, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About Gulliver's Travels
• Gulliver's Travels Video
• Character List

Essays for Gulliver’s Travels

Gulliver's Travels essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift.

• The Child-like Scientist: A Study of the Similarities Between Jonathan Swifts' Gulliver's Travels and Voltaire's Candide in Reference to Satire Developed through Naivete
• Book Four of Swift's Gulliver's Travels: Satirical, Utopian, or Both?
• Gulliver's Travels and the Refinement of Language and Society
• The Duality of Book Four of Gulliver's Travels

Lesson Plan for Gulliver’s Travels

• About the Author
• Study Objectives
• Common Core Standards
• Introduction to Gulliver's Travels
• Relationship to Other Books
• Bringing in Technology
• Notes to the Teacher
• Related Links
• Gulliver's Travels Bibliography

E-Text of Gulliver’s Travels

Gulliver's Travels e-text contains the full text of Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift.

• THE PUBLISHER TO THE READER
• PART I--A VOYAGE TO LILLIPUT
• PART II--A VOYAGE TO BROBDINGNAG
• PART III--A VOYAGE TO LAPUTA, BALNIBARBI, LUGGNAGG, GLUBBDUBDRIB,
• PART IV--A VOYAGE TO THE COUNTRY OF THE HOUYHNHNMS

Wikipedia Entries for Gulliver’s Travels

• Introduction
• Composition and history
• Major themes

Gulliver's Travels

50 pages • 1 hour read

Gulliver's Travels: Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World.

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1, Chapters 1-4

Part 1, Chapters 5-8

Part 2, Chapters 1-4

Part 2, Chapters 5-8

Part 3, Chapters 1-6

Part 3, Chapters 7-11

Part 4, Chapters 1-6

Part 4, Chapters 7-12

Character Analysis

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Discussion Questions

Summary and Study Guide

Gulliver’s Travels is a 1726 novel written by Jonathan Swift. It is both an early English novel and a seminal satirical text in British Literature, remaining Swift’s best-known work and spawning many adaptations in both print and film.

The targets of Swift’s satire range from political structures in early 18th-century England to the national rivalry between England and France during the same period. Swift also lampoons science and educational trends that lean towards more speculative and abstract learning. Most significantly, the novel mocks human vices and bad habits, thereby both exposing and critiquing the darker sides of humanity.

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The book is a fictional travel memoir written by Lemuel Gulliver , a man of humble origins, who satisfies his longing for travel and adventure by climbing aboard a merchant ship named the Antelope . During his initial voyage, the Antelope encounters storms and rough seas. Gulliver soon finds himself adrift in the sea, swimming and treading water to stay alive. He spots land and reaches shore, where he collapses from exhaustion.

When he awakes, he discovers that he is tied up with little beings marching up his torso. These little beings—no more than 6 inches in height—are named “Lilliputians,” and Gulliver will spend nearly three years living alongside them. Once the Lilliputians determine that Gulliver does not pose a violent threat, they begin to embrace him and accept him into their society. The Lilliputian society resembles many European societies, with an emperor and a royal court. Gulliver learns their language and offers to provide service to the emperor. One such service is a single-handed military defeat of Lilliput’s sworn enemy, Blefuscu: Gulliver wades across the gulf that separates the two islands, ties the Blefuscu naval ships together, and tows them all back to Lilliput. For this achievement, Gulliver is awarded the highest military title, Nardac (admiral).

All is going well for Gulliver until he stirs the envy of the current admiral and treasurer. Gulliver is accused of urinating within view of the royal palace, which, although true, was something he did to put out a fire at the queen’s quarters. The plot against Gulliver grows until he is served articles of impeachment. The verdict is that Gulliver should have his eyes removed. Sensing that his time is running out, Gulliver seeks the assistance of Lilliput’s rivals. Eventually, he discovers a capsized boat and returns to the open seas. He is rescued by a fellow Englishman at sea and returns to England.

Gulliver is in England a mere two months before embarking on another voyage, which is also driven off course by rough weather. He is sent out in a search party to find water on nearby land. Gulliver becomes separated from the crew and, when he returns to the boat, witnesses what appears to be a monster chasing his fellow crew members away. Gulliver is once again marooned alone in an entirely foreign land. This time, the inhabitants are giants, and the land is called Brobdingnag. A farmer takes Gulliver in as a souvenir, which saves him from harm. Gulliver then chronicles his life there and how he gets along living with giants. His perspective is the complete inverse of his experience in Lilliput, as he is now the diminutive one. One day, while visiting the seashore with the queen’s retinue, Gulliver is picked up and carried away by a bird. He is dropped into the ocean where he is once again rescued by a passing ship.

Undeterred, Gulliver takes to the seas again. This time, pirates overtake his ship. Gulliver is spared by the pirates but is set adrift in a canoe, with which he finds land. As he arrives on shore, he notices a floating landmass and soon discovers that it is the floating island of Laputa, which is inhabited by a king and royal family. Gulliver again learns a new language and spends time with the native inhabitants. He notices that these are peculiar people who are only interested in math, music, and astronomy. Their clothes do not fit, their houses are wobbly and askance, and their academic institutions are places where all kinds of bizarre and useless experiments take place. Gulliver then meets a governor who can summon the dead. He takes advantage of this opportunity by meeting with ancient historical figures such as Aristotle, Homer, and Julius Caesar. He also meets with more recent historical figures from England and discovers much that is distasteful about how people ascend to the royal court. Finally, Gulliver decides he has had enough and departs from the island chain. He goes to Japan, where he pretends to be Dutch, and eventually finds his way back to England.

For his fourth voyage, Gulliver is captain of a ship. He and his crew set out on their voyage, but soon many crew members become ill. Gulliver replaces these crew members but faces a mutiny. Gulliver is again set adrift and ends up in unchartered territory. He is there three days before he witnesses ugly, vicious animals approach him. He attempts to fend them off and is ultimately rescued by a horse. The horse guides Gulliver to a homestead where other horses live. Gulliver thinks that whoever resides there must be bright, intelligent people because of the way they have trained their horses. However, he soon learns that the horses—the Houyhnhnms—are themselves the intelligent ones.

Gulliver learns the horses’ language and holds counsel with the leader of the Houyhnhnms , who is perplexed to find a “Yahoo” (a human) able to use reason. Through Gulliver’s discourse with the master Houyhnhnm, he comes to loathe humanity and becomes cynical. Eventually, the Houyhnhnms order Gulliver to depart, to which he reluctantly agrees. When Gulliver returns home for the final time, he is spiteful and disdains all of humanity, including his own wife. He decides to become a recluse, buys horses, and communicates almost entirely with them rather than his fellow human beings.

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Gulliver’s Travels

Introduction to gulliver’s travels.

A very popular satire as well as one of the favorite children’s books, Gulliver’s Travels, is widely taught in schools and colleges as a syllabus book across the globe. Gulliver’s Travels was written by Jonathan Swift , an Irish author. This satirical travelogue was first published in 1726 and hit the headlines at that time for its biting satire and hidden attacks on the politicians, religious clergy, and a plethora of travelogues appearing at that time. The book has achieved the status of the classics of the English language, has impacted the world, specifically the children. Robert McCrum has considered it one of the best 100 novels during his calculated assessment of the best 100 novels in 2015.

Summary of Gulliver’s Travels

The story starts with the self-revelatory letter of Lemuel Gulliver, an English surgeon, who takes to navigate seas to lift his spirits after a business failure. However, the story goes in a linear fashion in that he goes from one place to another and narrates important happenings in an impassioned tone .

One of the first travels is to the world of Lilliput, the land of the small people in the size of 6 inches(15cm), where he lands after his ship is torn apart during a storm. He finds himself in the captivity of the little people who tie him with tiny threads and shots needle-like arrows at him when he tries to free himself. Soon he finds himself learning their language to converse with them. He finds them highly honorable people with traits of hospitality, though, a bit violent. He visits their land and joins them in everything until he differs from them in the matter of war with their neighbor, Blefuscu, though, he helps them bring the Blefuscu’s whole fleet singlehandedly. He also learns about their interesting politics, differences, creeds, and concepts about eating, breaking eggs, and superstitions in doing certain things. Despite providing great assistance and having such an understanding, he soon becomes a pariah for committing supposed treason of urinating on the regal palace that wants immediate assistance during the fire. Sensing a threat to his life, he flees to Blefuscu and sets sail back to England.

He stays with his family for a while and soon starts another voyage after being fed up with his stay. He soon finds himself coincidently landing in Brobdingnag, the land of the giants in comparison to which Gulliver himself looks like a Lilliputian. When one of the giants, working as a farmer, discovers him in the field, they are very surprised to look at such a small creature and play with Gulliver, while Gulliver minutely observes and records their social manners. Not only their giantess but also their social life where politicking is non-existent seems entirely different from the Lilliputians. The farmer and his daughter Glumdalclitch take care of him, also exhibited him for money. He was very exhausted and couldn’t perform anymore.

That’s when the farmer sells Gulliver to the Queen for ransom. Gulliver makes an exception of going to live with the Queen only if Glumdalclitch came with him as a caretaker. During his stay, he is abducted by a monkey, fights giant wasps when they entered the small house that is specially made for him by the Queen. However, finally, he leaves them when an eagle accidentally takes his cage and drops him in the sea.

During his next travel, he lands on the land of Laputa, a floating island, where intellectuals enjoy life. Despite their intellectuality, they wreak havoc . On the other land, Balnibarbi. The competitive scientific research going on both the lands is entirely insane as far as the welfare of the residents of both the lands is concerned. Their experiments were just a blind pursuit of science rather than to meet the practical ends like extracting sunbeams from cucumber, softening the marble in order to use as a pillow. This was a satire on Royal Society and especially Issac Newton on a professional as well as personal level.  Swift never really understood the purpose of Newton’s experiments and theories, also his stance on religion. The mention of rivalry between Laputa and Balnibarbi is in reality the power relations between British and Ireland. Laputa intimidates Balnibarbi into blocking the sun or rain or crushing their land by lowering Laputa. Mocking the threats from the English to the Irish.

From there Gulliver reaches Glubbdubdrib, where he meets and converses with historical figures from antiquity and the present time. He also visits Struldbrugs and Luggnag where he meets cynics and then visiting Japan, he comes back where rest is nowhere, for he again departs for the land of Houyhnhnms where horses are rational animals , while Yahoos are brute apes resembling the humans. Gulliver lives there for some time to exchange views about his world and their world. He even decides to spend the rest of his life with them as he appreciates their sincerity, hard work honesty, and simple life principles. Many months pass, Gulliver almost settles at the land of Houyhnhnms. After an unfortunate incident, however, Gullivers time with them comes to an end.

At the assembly of Houyhnhnms, Gulliver was ruled as a Yahoo who can’t live with his master anymore because it would a threat to civilization. His master gives him time to build a canoe to go back to his land and then returns. He is heartbroken but the master of  Houyhnhnms encourages him to find his destiny. When he boards a Portuguese ship, the borders are surprised when Gulliver expresses his disgust at the sight of Captain Pedro de Mendez who Gulliver thought of as yahoo but was a kind and wise man. He reaches England with the claim of having English rights on the lands he has visited. He couldn’t ingest the idea of him living with Yahoos, so he avoids his family and spends time in stables talking to his horses.

Major Themes in Gulliver’s Travels

• Human Physical Condition: The mention of diminutive human beings, then giants, and then of different shapes in different voyages Gulliver comes across show the main thematic strand that runs throughout the book. In the voyage to Lilliput, he sees Lilliputians, and in the voyage to Brobdingnag, he comes across giants. He also meets different people of different shapes, sizes, and different mental capacities during his voyages to Glubbdubdrib and the land of Houyhnhnms where he meets brutish apes as well as rational horses. These are different physical conditions of human beings that demonstrate the deep observation of the author as pointed out through Gulliver’s experience.
• Importance of Education: Gulliver has stressed the importance of education in the very early pages of his voyages, declaring that most of his leisure is spent reading. His encounter with the Lilliputians and Brobdingnagians makes him aware of different types of knowledge being pursued by these creatures. However, it is quite contradictory that creatures, like human beings such as Yahoos, run away from knowledge, while the Houyhnhnms are pursuing knowledge and education as sane creatures.
• Narrow-Mindedness and Enlightenment: In the first voyage Gulliver observes shrewdness, judging nature, violence, and the narrow-mindedness of the Lilliputians. He also witnesses the enlightenment during his other voyages and makes the readers aware of how political situations turn from good to bad and from bad to ugly just over the petty issues of breaking eggs and urinating, though, it might be a benign purpose. Even his journey to the land of Houyhnhnms and Glubbdubdrib makes certain points about this narrowmindedness as well as enlightenment that even the horses are able to be rational when Yahoos want to stay in the darkness of life as well as mind.
• Otherness: The thematic strand of otherness emerges when Gulliver could not merge in the Lilliputians due to his physique as well as manners and understanding of the culture. What he thinks of their narrowmindedness is their cultural politics and antagonism against the Blefuscudians. The same goes for his other voyages including his voyage to Brobdingnag and Glubdubdrib where he is unsuitable and unfit among the natives; he is either too small, too clever, or to dunce to mix up with them. This is actually the cultural otherness that he could not merge in any of these lands nor did the locals consider him a local person.
• Perspective and Relevance: The individual perspective and its relevance to the culture is another theme that runs through the book. It happens that he is a Mountain Man in Lilliput but a human specimen in Brobdingnag. Not only does the perspective about his physicality change but also the relevance of the perspective changes from land to land and people to people. When he meets Houyhnhnms in their land, he comes to know that even animals could be rational when their perspective and relevance changes. His final arrival to the United Kingdom opens up new vistas of life for him to understand.
• Travel: Travel is another major theme of the book as it is actually a travelogue and tells its readers that they learn new things and new perspectives during travels, which eventually becomes an adventure too. Gulliver comes to know about the existence of new people, along with their strange and odd customs and conventions such as Lilliputians even fight on the breaking of eggs and urination, while the Brobdingnagians do not see such things from this perspective. Had Gulliver not traveled so far, he would not have come to know such things. Moreover, it also sheds light on the spirit of that time about travel and exploration.
• Question of Truth: Man has always been in search of truth and reality and nature of truth. The question of truth looms large in the background of Gulliver’s travels. Even Gulliver as a narrator is not a reliable person as the readers question his authenticity on account of the fantasies he has weaved and the chances he has taken to travel to these far-off lands, for every reader knows that such lands do not exist. However, Jonathan Swift has done every effort to make the story feels true.
• Moral versus Physical Power: The theme of moral and physical power emerges when Gulliver faces the dilemma of attacking the Blefuscudians at the behest of the king of Lilliput and he knows if he does not use his physical power, he is liable to face consequences. Therefore, he uses moral power but faces consequences. He also learns that every land has its own ethical framework regarding the use of physical power such as the Brobdingnagians do not use physical power so often as the Lilliputians.
• Governance: The issue of government also comes up during different travels; somewhere it is rational and despotic while at some other places it is democratic and rational such as in the land of Houyhnhnm, while the Lilliputians are despotic.

Major Characters in Gulliver’s Travels

• Lemuel Gulliver : Despite being the main narrator and protagonist of the book, Gulliver is neither heroic nor legendary but an ordinary human being due to the misanthropy he demonstrates by the end of the book. However, his observations of human nature, if it is small like the Lilliputians and giant like that of the Brobdingnagians and wily or cruel like that of the Yahoos, show that he has uncovered a secret to understanding the human soul better. However, despite his love for Houyhnhnm and his spite for the Yahoos, he does not leave human society and ultimately returns to England to live and demonstrate his hatred for the man. With some of the best traits, Gulliver also shows that he is gullible as well as a non-savvy person who shows what he comes across during his travels.
• The Emperor of Lilliput: Lilliput, the land of small people, is ruled by the emperor, who like all other Lilliputians, is just six inches in height. However, the powers that he wields over their lives are limitless yet to Gulliver he seems quite a sinister character who is not only an expert in politics but also adept in strategy. Gulliver learns about the frightening aspects of his personality through the harsh punishments he awards to his subjects over minor mistakes or crimes and that too in politics. However, his traits of hospitality and culinary tastes rather amaze Gulliver.
• Brobdingnagian Queen: The queen is another important figure in the text who comes across Gulliver during his voyage to the land of Brobdingnag. She falls in love with him as she keeps him with her to play with the little man as he is compared to their giant statures. During his stay at the palace, he feels safe and satisfied with her but also his interaction with her becomes significant, belittling other living or dead characters, even his wife to some extent.
• Lord Munodi: Although Lord is not a significant character in the text, he wins the attention of Gulliver on account of his being the governor of the land of Lagado who is still interested in Gulliver about knowing him and informing him of his land where he rules supreme amid the theoretical delusions of its intellectuals. Isolated in his own estate, Munodi suffers from acute alienation that seems similar to Gulliver, showing him that human predicaments are not different whether it is the far-off land or England.
• The Farmer: The importance of farmer from the land of Brobdingnag, is the first person who comes into contact with Gulliver when he accidentally lands there. Gulliver comes to know about his rationality and his credulity that he also believes that tiny creatures like Gulliver, too, could be rational. He uses Gulliver as an object of entertainment to earn money by using him as labor. His greedy and simplemindedness costs Gulliver very dearly which shows the trait of the few Brobdingnagians’ greedy nature but is non-violent.
• Reldresal: Reldresal is the aide of the king of Lilliput. As his principal secretary, he acts as an intermediary between the king and Gulliver and exploits things to make Gulliver understand the situation. He communicates with Gulliver and makes arrangements for his stay and also for his services to the land of Lilliput.
• Glumdalclitch: Gulliver’s first caretaker in the land of Brobdingnag is the farmer’s young daughter, Glumdalclithc, a nine-year-old, who is almost a kid if measured from the age of Gulliver’s world yet very young to seem to take care of Gulliver. She cared for Gulliver in the land of giants where a minor mistake could cost his life. Later, when royalty comes to know about the absence of good caretakers for Gulliver, she again finds herself in the court to continue to protect Gulliver until the bird picks him up.
• The King: The Brobdingnagian king is comparatively generous and liberal when he demonstrates when meeting Gulliver. He prefers peace over war and shows his intellect and his expertise in political science and other statecrafts. His erudition displays itself during his political debate with Gulliver about English history and politics.
• Yahoos: The importance of Yahoos lies in their humanlike shapes that they keep themselves unkempt and illiterate and behave like animals without giving a second thought to their actions. Their hairy bodies cripple their mental faculties, too, making them subservient to Houyhnhnms, ironic governance that runs contrary to what Gulliver has been experiencing in England. Their worst impact on Gulliver is that he considers himself one of them.
• Houyhnhnms: These creatures are horses in shapes but highly rational in thinking and dealing with Gulliver, as they display all moral traits necessary for good human beings. Their rationality and association with socialism what Gulliver likes the most.

Writing Style of Gulliver’s Travels

Gulliver’s Travels is written in the first-person narrative . The presentation and commentary are through Gulliver’s experience of whom he meets and what he sees during his voyages. The presentation occurs in a very simple and direct language that shows that Gulliver knows how to reach his audiences . Most of the words have been coined as they do not exist in English or any other language. Generalization has been used to make them common for the readers to understand. Since then, the words have taken meanings of their own, specifically, Lilliput, Yahoo, and Houyhnhnms. The sentence style is quite simple but sometimes becomes very intricate and complex when Swift becomes philosophical and comments on the politics and culture of the land Gulliver visits. Swift turns to irony , satire, hyperbole , and metaphors to highlight thematic ideas.

Analysis of the Literary Devices in Gulliver’s Travels

• Action: The main action of the text comprises different voyages that Gulliver undertakes to escape the humdrum of England. The falling action occurs at several places in travels such as when he is awarded a death sentence in Lilliput or when he falls down from the grip of an eagle in Glubbdubdrib. However, rising action occurs when he comes to the point that human beings are not worthy creatures to stay on the face of this earth blessed to them by God.
• Allusion : The book shows good use of different allusions as given in the below examples, i. Although Mr Gulliver was born in Nottinghamshire , where his Father dwelt, yet I have heard him say, his Family came from Oxfordshire ; to confirm which, I have observed in the Church-Yard at Banbury ,* in that County, several Tombs and Monuments of the Gullivers . (The Publishers to the Reader) ii. For it was ever my Opinion, that there must be a Balance of Earth to counterpoise the great Continent of Tartary ; and therefore they ought to correct their Maps and Charts, by joining this vast Tract of Land to the North-west Parts of america ; wherein I shall be ready to lend them my Assistance. (Chapter-4) iii. This Academy is not an entire single Building, but a Continuation of several Houses on both Sides of a Street; which growing waste,*was purchased and applyed to that Use. (Chapter-4) iv. The Continent of which this Kingdom is a part, extends itself, as I have Reason to believe, Eastward to that unknown Tract of america , Westward to California , and North to the Pacifick Ocean. (Chapter-7) The first example shows the reference to England and different places, the second to an old race and a place, the third to Aristotle’s academy, and the last to America .
• Antagonist : Although it is a book of travelogue and not a novel that Gulliver presents few antagonists in the first 3 parts. However, in the 4th adventure by the end, he comes to know that by sketching Yahoos as the most detestable characters, Gulliver wants to say that we human beings are enemies of ourselves. Therefore, apart from the Lilliputian kingdom, the jealous courtier in Brobdingnag kingdom, the mindless scientists in Laputa and neighboring kingdoms, Yahoos are the true antagonists of this travelogue.
• Conflict : The text shows both external and internal conflicts. The external conflict is going on between Gulliver and his views about different societies that are also an internal contact. That is why he paints the detestable picture of Yahoos in the last voyage.
• Characters: The text shows both static as well as dynamic characters. The young man, Gulliver, is a dynamic character as he shows a considerable transformation in his behavior and conduct by the end of the book when starts hating the people. However, all other characters are static as they do not show or witness any transformation such as Reldresal, the Lilliputians, and even Gulliver’s own family members.
• Climax : The climax in the text occurs when Gulliver starts loving the land of horses and horses in return to hating human beings after painting them dirty creatures, equating them to vermin.
• Foreshadowing : The text shows many instances of foreshadows as given in the following examples, i. I laid them out in learning Navigation, and other Parts of the Mathematicks, useful to those who intend to travel, as I always believed it would be some time or other my Fortune to do. (Chapter-1) ii. I had been for some Hours extremely pressed by the Necessities of Nature; which was no Wonder, it being almost two Days since I had last disburthened myself. (Chapter-2) The mention of travel and Necessities of Nature shows the writer is fond of traveling and that he is going on some travel very soon. Both of these points foreshadow of the coming events.
• Hyperbole : The book shows various examples of hyperboles such as, i. I felt something alive moving on my left Leg, which advancing gently forward over my Breast, came almost up to my Chin; when bending mine Eyes downwards as much as I could, I perceived it to be a human Creature not six Inches high,* with a Bow and Arrow in his Hands, and a Quiver at his Back. (Chapter-1) ii. The Dog following the Scent, came directly up, and taking me in his Mouth, ran strait to his Master, wagging his Tail, and set me gently on the Ground. (Chapter-5) iii. Having a Desire to see those Antients, who were most renowned for Wit and Learning, I set apart one Day on purpose. I proposed that Homer * and Aristotle might appear at the Head of all their Commentators; but these were so numerous that some Hundreds were forced to attend in the Court and outward Rooms of the Palace. (Chapter-8) All of these examples show that Swift has used far-fetched ideas that could only be hyperboles. There cannot be six inches high men, or dogs carrying a man in his mouth and classical figures making their presence felt in this age, or even in the 17 th century.
• Imagery : Gulliver’s Travels shows the use of imagery as given below, i. I likewise felt several slender Ligatures across my Body, from my Armpits to my Thighs. I could only look upwards; the Sun began to grow hot, and the Light offended mine Eyes. I heard a confused Noise about me, but in the Posture I lay, could see nothing except the Sky. In a little time I felt something alive moving on my left Leg, which advancing gently forward over my Breast, came almost up to my Chin; when bending mine Eyes downwards as much as I could, I perceived it to be a human Creature not six Inches high. (Chapter-1) ii. Their Heads were all reclined either to the Right or the Left; one of their Eyes turned inward, and the other directly up to the Zenith. Their outward Garments were adorned with the Figures of Suns, Moons, and Stars, interwoven with those of Fiddles, Flutes, Harps, Trumpets, Guittars, Harpsichords, and many more Instruments of Musick, unknown to us in Europe . (Chapter-2) These two examples show images of size, color, sound, and shapes.
• Metaphor : Gulliver’s Travels shows excellent use of various metaphors as given in the below examples, i. Answers I have with much Pains wringed and extorted from you; I cannot but conclude the Bulk of your Natives, to be the most pernicious Race of little odious Vermin that Nature ever suffered to crawl upon the Surface of the Earth. (Part-2, Chapter-6) ii. The King was struck with Horror at the Description I had given of those terrible Engines, and the Proposal I had made. He was amazed how so impotent and groveling an Insect as I (these were his Expressions) could entertain such inhuman Ideas, and in so familiar a Manner as to appear wholly unmoved at all the Scenes of Blood and Desolation. (Part-2, Chapter-7) iii. But my Wife protested I should never go to Sea any more; although my evil Destiny so ordered, that she had not Power to hinder me; as the Reader may know hereafter. In the mean Time , I here conclude the second Part of my unfortunate Voyages. (Part-2, Chapter-8) These examples show that several things have been compared directly in the text such as the first shows the king comparing the English people to vermins, the second shows Gulliver comparing himself to an insect and the last one shows him comparing his destiny to a devil.
• Mood : The book shows various moods. It starts with a jolly mood of a traveler but becomes unconvincing when it enters the second part of the travel to Lilliput and becomes highly satiric and ironic when it ends after different travels.
• Motif : Most important motifs of the text are foreign languages, travels, excrements, and islands.
• Narrator : Gulliver’s Travels is narrated from the first person point of view , who happens to be Gulliver.
• Personification : The book shows examples of personifications such as, i. The Emperor, and all his Court, came out to meet us; but his great Officers would by no means suffer his Majesty to endanger his Person by mounting on my Body. (Chapter-1) ii. The Ship came within half a League of this Creek, and sent out her Long-Boat with Vessels to take in fresh Water (for the Place it seems was very well known) but I did not observe it until the Boat was almost on Shore; and it was too late to seek another Hiding-Place. (Chapter-11) These examples show as if the court and the ship have emotions and lives of their own.
• Protagonist : Gulliver is the protagonist of the text. The travelogue starts with his entry into the world of voyages and moves forward as he goes from one land to the other.
• Satire : The travels of Gulliver show the use of satire on religion, political ideas, living style, and above all the whole Western culture during the early 18 th
• Setting : The setting of the text is some islands and lands that Gulliver visits during his different voyages.
• Simile : The book shows good use of various similes such as, i. They climbed up into the Engine, and advancing very softly to my Face, one of them, an Officer in the Guards, put the sharp End of his HalfPike a good way up into my left Nostril, which tickled my Nose like a Straw, and made me sneeze violently: (Chapter-1) ii. I viewed the Town on my left Hand, which looked like the painted Scene of a City in a Theatre. (Chapter-2) iii. He put this Engine to our Ears, which made an incessant Noise like that of a Water-Mill. (Chapter-2) These are similes as the use of the word “like” shows the comparison between different things. Whereas the first example shows the comparison like the tickling of the nose with some straw, the town like a scenic picture and noise like that of a water-mill.

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The United Arab Emirates is struggled to recover from the heaviest recorded rainfall ever to hit the desert nation, as its main airport worked to restore normal operations even as floodwater still covered portions of major highways and roads. (AP video/Malak Harb)

A man walks along a road barrier among floodwater caused by heavy rain on Sheikh Zayed Road highway in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Thursday, April 18, 2024. The United Arab Emirates attempted to dry out Thursday from the heaviest rain the desert nation has ever recorded, a deluge that flooded out Dubai International Airport and disrupted flights through the world’s busiest airfield for international travel. (AP Photo/Christopher Pike)

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A man carries luggage through floodwater caused by heavy rain while waiting for transportation on Sheikh Zayed Road highway in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Thursday, April 18, 2024. The United Arab Emirates attempted to dry out Thursday from the heaviest rain the desert nation has ever recorded, a deluge that flooded out Dubai International Airport and disrupted flights through the world’s busiest airfield for international travel. (AP Photo/Christopher Pike)

An abandoned vehicle stands in floodwater caused by heavy rain with the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building, seen on the background, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Thursday, April 18, 2024. The United Arab Emirates attempted to dry out Thursday from the heaviest rain the desert nation has ever recorded, a deluge that flooded out Dubai International Airport and disrupted flights through the world’s busiest airfield for international travel. (AP Photo/Christopher Pike)

People wait for transportation amidst floodwater caused by heavy rain on Sheikh Zayed Road highway in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Thursday, April 18, 2024. The United Arab Emirates attempted to dry out Thursday from the heaviest rain the desert nation has ever recorded, a deluge that flooded out Dubai International Airport and disrupted flights through the world’s busiest airfield for international travel. (AP Photo/Christopher Pike)

A man carries a child through floodwater caused by heavy rain while waiting for transportation on Sheikh Zayed Road highway in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Thursday, April 18, 2024. The United Arab Emirates attempted to dry out Thursday from the heaviest rain the desert nation has ever recorded, a deluge that flooded out Dubai International Airport and disrupted flights through the world’s busiest airfield for international travel. (AP Photo/Christopher Pike)

Vehicles drive through standing floodwater caused by heavy rain on an onramp to Sheikh Zayed Road highway in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Thursday, April 18, 2024. The United Arab Emirates attempted to dry out Thursday from the heaviest rain the desert nation has ever recorded, a deluge that flooded out Dubai International Airport and disrupted flights through the world’s busiest airfield for international travel. (AP Photo/Christopher Pike)

Vehicles drive through standing floodwater caused by heavy rain on Sheikh Zayed Road highway in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Thursday, April 18, 2024. The United Arab Emirates attempted to dry out Thursday from the heaviest rain the desert nation has ever recorded, a deluge that flooded out Dubai International Airport and disrupted flights through the world’s busiest airfield for international travel. (AP Photo/Christopher Pike)

People wait for transportation on Sheikh Zayed Road highway in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Thursday, April 18, 2024. The United Arab Emirates attempted to dry out Thursday from the heaviest rain the desert nation has ever recorded, a deluge that flooded out Dubai International Airport and disrupted flights through the world’s busiest airfield for international travel. (AP Photo/Christopher Pike)

People walk through floodwater caused by heavy rain while waiting for transportation on Sheikh Zayed Road highway in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Thursday, April 18, 2024. The United Arab Emirates attempted to dry out Thursday from the heaviest rain the desert nation has ever recorded, a deluge that flooded out Dubai International Airport and disrupted flights through the world’s busiest airfield for international travel. (AP Photo/Christopher Pike)

Abandoned vehicles stand in floodwater caused by heavy rain along Sheikh Zayed Road highway in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Thursday, April 18, 2024. The United Arab Emirates attempted to dry out Thursday from the heaviest rain the desert nation has ever recorded, a deluge that flooded out Dubai International Airport and disrupted flights through the world’s busiest airfield for international travel. (AP Photo/Christopher Pike)

An abandoned vehicle stands in floodwater caused by heavy rain in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Thursday, April 18, 2024. The United Arab Emirates attempted to dry out Thursday from the heaviest rain the desert nation has ever recorded, a deluge that flooded out Dubai International Airport and disrupted flights through the world’s busiest airfield for international travel. (AP Photo/Christopher Pike)

A flooded street by heavy rain is seen, with the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building, on the background, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Thursday, April 18, 2024. The United Arab Emirates attempted to dry out Thursday from the heaviest rain the desert nation has ever recorded, a deluge that flooded out Dubai International Airport and disrupted flights through the world’s busiest airfield for international travel. (AP Photo/Christopher Pike)

A man walks through standing floodwater caused by heavy rain with the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building, seen in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Thursday, April 18, 2024. The United Arab Emirates attempted to dry out Thursday from the heaviest rain the desert nation has ever recorded, a deluge that flooded out Dubai International Airport and disrupted flights through the world’s busiest airfield for international travel. (AP Photo/Christopher Pike)

A man walks through standing floodwater caused by heavy rain in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Thursday, April 18, 2024. The United Arab Emirates attempted to dry out Thursday from the heaviest rain the desert nation has ever recorded, a deluge that flooded out Dubai International Airport and disrupted flights through the world’s busiest airfield for international travel. (AP Photo/Christopher Pike)

A group of people work to recover an abandoned vehicle taken by floodwater caused by heavy rain in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Thursday, April 18, 2024. The United Arab Emirates attempted to dry out Thursday from the heaviest rain the desert nation has ever recorded, a deluge that flooded out Dubai International Airport and disrupted flights through the world’s busiest airfield for international travel. (AP Photo/Christopher Pike)

Vehicles drive through standing floodwater caused by heavy rain in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Thursday, April 18, 2024. The United Arab Emirates attempted to dry out Thursday from the heaviest rain the desert nation has ever recorded, a deluge that flooded out Dubai International Airport and disrupted flights through the world’s busiest airfield for international travel. (AP Photo/Christopher Pike)

A man walks through floodwater in the Mudon neighborhood in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Thursday, April 18, 2024. The United Arab Emirates attempted to dry out Thursday from the heaviest rain the desert nation has ever recorded — a deluge that flooded out Dubai International Airport and disrupted flights through the world’s busiest airfield for international travel. (AP Photo/Jon Gambrell)

Civil defense officials bring water on a raft to a family in the Mudon neighborhood in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Thursday, April 18, 2024. The United Arab Emirates attempted to dry out Thursday from the heaviest rain the desert nation has ever recorded — a deluge that flooded out Dubai International Airport and disrupted flights through the world’s busiest airfield for international travel. (AP Photo/Jon Gambrell)

Dubai civil defense officials drive through floodwater in the Mudon neighborhood in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Thursday, April 18, 2024. The United Arab Emirates attempted to dry out Thursday from the heaviest rain the desert nation has ever recorded — a deluge that flooded out Dubai International Airport and disrupted flights through the world’s busiest airfield for international travel. (AP Photo/Jon Gambrell)

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The United Arab Emirates tried to wring itself out Thursday after the heaviest recorded rainfall ever to hit the desert nation , with its main airport allowing more flights even as floodwater still covered portions of major highways and communities.

Dubai International Airport, the world’s busiest for international travel , allowed global carriers on Thursday morning to again fly into Terminal 1 at the airfield. And long-haul carrier Emirates, crucial to East-West travel, began allowing local passengers to arrive at Terminal 3, their base of operations.

However, Dubai Airports CEO Paul Griffiths said in an interview with The Associated Press that the airfield needed at least another 24 hours to resume operations close to its usual schedule. Meanwhile, one desert community in Dubai saw floodwaters continue to rise Thursday to as much as 1 meter (3 feet) as civil defense officials struggled to pump out the water.

“We were looking at the radar thinking, ‘Goodness, if this hits, then it’s going to be cataclysmic,’” Griffiths said of the storm. “And indeed it was.”

The airport ended up needing 22 tankers with vacuum pumps to get water off its grounds. Griffiths acknowledged that taxiways flooded during the rains, though the airport’s runways remained free of water to safely operate. Online videos of a FlyDubai flight landing with its reverse thrust spraying out water caught the world’s attention.

“It looks dramatic, but it actually isn’t that dramatic,” Griffiths said.

Emirates, whose operations had been struggling since the storm Tuesday, had stopped travelers flying out of the UAE from checking into their flights as they tried to move out connecting passengers. Pilots and flight crews also had a hard time reaching the airport given the water on roadways.

But on Thursday, Emirates lifted that order to allow customers into the airport. That saw some 2,000 people come into Terminal 3, again sparking long lines, Griffiths said.

Others who arrived at the airport described hourslong waits to get their baggage, with some just giving up to head home or to whatever hotel would have them.

Two men walk through floodwater in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Wednesday, April 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Jon Gambrell)

The UAE, a hereditarily ruled, autocratic nation on the Arabian Peninsula, typically sees little rainfall in its arid desert climate. However, a massive storm forecasters had been warning about for days blew through the country’s seven sheikhdoms.

By the end of Tuesday, more than 142 millimeters (5.59 inches) of rainfall had soaked Dubai over 24 hours. An average year sees 94.7 millimeters (3.73 inches) of rain at Dubai International Airport. Other areas of the country saw even more precipitation.

Meanwhile, intense floods also have struck neighboring Oman in recent days. Authorities on Thursday raised the death toll from those storms to at least 21 killed.

The UAE’s drainage systems quickly became overwhelmed Tuesday, flooding out neighborhoods, business districts and even portions of the 12-lane Sheikh Zayed Road highway running through Dubai.

The state-run WAM news agency called the rain “a historic weather event” that surpassed “anything documented since the start of data collection in 1949.”

In a message to the nation late Wednesday, Emirati leader Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the ruler of Abu Dhabi, said authorities would “quickly work on studying the condition of infrastructure throughout the UAE and to limit the damage caused.”

On Thursday, people waded through oil-slicked floodwater to reach cars earlier abandoned, checking to see if their engines still ran. Tanker trucks with vacuums began reaching some areas outside of Dubai’s downtown core for the first time as well. Schools remain closed until next week.

Vehicles sit abandoned in floodwater covering a major road in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, April 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Jon Gambrell)

Authorities have offered no overall damage or injury information from the floods, which killed at least one person.

However, at least one community saw the effects of the rainfall only get worse Thursday. Mudon, a development by the state-owned Dubai Properties, saw flooding in one neighborhood reach as much as 1 meter. Civil defense workers tried to pump the water out, but it was a struggle as people waded through the floodwater.

Residents of Mudon, who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity given the UAE’s strict laws governing speech, described putting together the equivalent of nearly $2,000 to get a tanker to the community Wednesday. They alleged the developers did nothing to help prior to that, even as they called and emailed. They also said a nearby sewage processing facility failed, bringing more water into their homes.

“A lot of people were in denial of how bad it was,” one homeowner said as civil defense officials waded through the water, bringing bottled water on a raft.

Dubai Holding, a state-owned company that has Dubai Properties as an arm, did not respond to questions. It’s part of a wider nexus that U.S. diplomats have called “Dubai Inc.” — all properties overseen by the city-state’s ruling family.

The flooding sparked speculation that the UAE’s aggressive campaign of cloud seeding — flying small planes through clouds dispersing chemicals aimed at getting rain to fall — may have contributed to the deluge. But experts said the storm systems that produced the rain were forecast well in advance and that cloud seeding alone would not have caused such flooding.

Scientists also say climate change is responsible for more intense and more frequent extreme storms, droughts, floods and wildfires around the world. Dubai hosted the United Nations’ COP28 climate talks just last year.

Abu Dhabi’s state-linked newspaper The National in an editorial Thursday described the heavy rains as a warning to countries in the wider Persian Gulf region to “climate-proof their futures.”

“The scale of this task is more daunting than it appears even at first glance, because such changes involve changing the urban environment of a region that for as long as it has been inhabited, has experienced little but heat and sand,” the newspaper said.

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Middle East conflict

April 11, 2024 - Israel-Hamas war

By Heather Chen , Antoinette Radford, Tori B. Powell , Aditi Sangal and Elise Hammond , CNN

Our live coverage of Israel's war on Hamas in Gaza has moved  here .

UN committee fails to reach consensus on full Palestinian membership, Security Council president says

From CNN’s Richard Roth and Michael Rios

A specialized UN committee failed to reach a consensus Thursday on Palestinian membership in the United Nations, according to the president of the UN Security Council.

Two-thirds of the committee members were in favor of moving on with membership, with many countries arguing that “Palestine fulfills all the criteria that are required” to be granted full state member status, Malta's Ambassador and Security Council President Vanessa Frazier said. 

She added that no one explicitly objected to the membership qualifications.

Frazier also said she would circulate a draft report on the deliberations as soon as Friday. If the committee doesn’t agree on the report, it could hold another meeting to iron out any differences.

Asked whether the process of deliberating Palestinian membership in the committee is now over, Frazier said, “Unless the next step of agreeing (to) the report of the committee warrants another meeting to iron out the differences, it’s not foreseen that there would be any further committee action.”

But she noted that any UN Security Council member can still table a resolution to vote on Palestinian membership at any time, regardless of the committee's report.

The US and Middle East brace for a possible Iran attack that could escalate the conflict. Here's the latest

From CNN staff

Concerns about a possible Iranian attack against Israel has prompted many diplomatic conversations around the globe.

Here are some developments on diplomacy around the threat of an attack:

• Iran's statement: The imperative for Tehran to "punish" Israel for the deadly strike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus last week might have been avoided if the attack had been condemned at the United Nations, Iran’s Mission to the UN said Thursday.
• US and UK diplomacy: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with the foreign ministers of Turkey, China and Saudi Arabia on Wednesday night and Thursday morning to tell them that countries should be urging Iran not to escalate the conflict in the Middle East after  threats made by Tehran against Israel,  according to a State Department spokesperson. The top US general for the Middle East is also in Israel . Additionally, Britain's foreign secretary warned his Iranian counterpart on Thursday that Tehran “must not draw” the Middle East into a wider conflict .
• Israel receives US support: Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant spoke with Blinken and US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. The US officials expressed the country's support for Israel against Iranian threats. Gallant warned that such an attack could lead to a regional escalation.
• Travel restrictions: The US State Department restricted the travel of US government personnel in Israel in the wake of public threats against Israel by Iran. “The security environment remains complex and can change quickly depending on the political situation and recent events,” the alert noted. US officials  are on high alert  for a potential retaliatory strike by Iran or its proxies against Israel.

Meanwhile, here's some other updates:

• Hamas on hostages: A member of Hamas' political bureau said   a prisoner-hostage exchange is being discussed as part of larger ceasefire negotiations. "Part of negotiations is to reach a ceasefire agreement to have enough time and safety to collect final and more precise data" on the hostages held in Gaza, Basem Naim said in a statement on Thursday. "Because they (hostages) are in different palaces, (being held) by different groups, some of them are under the rubble killed with our own people, and we negotiate to get heavy equipment for this purpose."
• Updates on aid to Gaza: It is clear that Israel is working to ramp up humanitarian aid to Gaza, but it has not yet implemented all of the measures it has announced, a top United Nations humanitarian official said. Aid coming in trucks from Israel has to be "segregated from water, from food, from medical items" before it goes into Gaza, said Jamie McGoldrick, the UN’s humanitarian coordinator in Jerusalem. “Getting 400 trucks from Kerem Shalom doesn't mean 400 trucks go into Gaza,” he said, adding that the logistical complications are numerous, and take time to resolve. He also said Israel’s restrictions on movement inside the strip complicate matters.

Anera charity resumes work in Gaza after pausing when Israeli strike killed 7 World Central Kitchen staff

From CNN's Tala Alrajjal and Mohammed Tawfeeq

American Near East Refugee Aid (Anera) has resumed Gaza operations "after a temporary pause" following an airstrike that killed seven World Central Kitchen (WCK) aid workers on April 1.

"As you know, the decision to temporarily pause our operations was not an easy one. We followed the direction of our staff in Gaza, who've faced death, loss, and destruction since the start of the war," Sean Carroll, the president and CEO of Anera, said in a statement on Thursday. "After the killing of Anera staff member Mousa Shawwa , followed by the attack that killed seven aid workers from World Central Kitchen, we made the difficult but necessary decision to pause aid operations on April 2," Carroll added in the statement.

Carroll said Israeli authorities informed him during a meeting Thursday that "certain measures would be taken to protect humanitarian aid workers in Gaza – including Anera's staff."

"With the full support of our Gaza team, we have determined that the circumstances have changed sufficiently to resume our vital humanitarian work in Gaza," Carroll said. 

Anera on Thursday resumed "full operations in Gaza to deliver meals, food parcels, hygiene kits, tents, medical treatments, and more to families in dire need," according to the statement.

Iran says its imperative to punish Israel could have been avoided had UN Security Council condemned attack

From CNN’s Natalie Barr and Adam Pourahmadi

The imperative for Tehran to "punish" Israel for the deadly strike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus last week might have been avoided if the attack had been condemned at the United Nations, Iran’s Mission to the UN said Thursday.

“Had the UN Security Council condemned the Zionist regime’s reprehensible act of aggression on our diplomatic premises in Damascus and subsequently brought to justice its perpetrators, the imperative for Iran to punish this rogue regime might have been obviated," the  mission said on X.

The UN Secretary-General António Guterres condemned the attack on April 1, according to a statement from the UN spokesperson Stephan Dujarric. A Security Council discussion was held on April 2 to discuss the attack, but differences among members prevented any formal action or condemnation from taking place.

The United States is on high alert and actively preparing for a “significant” attack by Iran targeting Israeli or American assets in the region  in response to the strike in Damascus  that killed top Iranian commanders.

UK foreign secretary warns Iran not to draw Middle East into wider conflict

From CNN's Natalie Barr

Britain's foreign secretary warned his Iranian counterpart on Thursday that Tehran “must not draw” the Middle East into a wider conflict following a series of escalating threats made by Iran toward Israel.

British Foreign Secretary David Cameron told Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian that the United Kingdom was "deeply concerned about the potential for miscalculation leading to further violence. Iran should instead work to de-escalate and prevent further attacks," according to a post on X .

Iran's state-aligned Tasnim news agency on Thursday reported that Amir-Abdollahian had told Cameron that the silence from the UK and the United States following Israel’s attack on the Iranian consulate in Damascus last week only served to encourage Israel to continue waging war in Gaza and expand its conflict in the region.

US and Israeli defense leaders discuss fears of Iranian attack

From CNN’s Michael Conte in Washington, DC, Tamar Michaelis in Jerusalem and Larry Register in Atlanta

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant today to “reaffirm the US ironclad commitment to Israel’s security against threats from Iran and its proxies,” according to a Pentagon spokesperson.

The call comes a day after Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Israel " must be punished and it will be" following a strike on an Iranian embassy compound in Syria that killed seven Iranian officials.

Israel “will not tolerate an Iranian attack on its territory,” the statement read, adding that the two defense leaders also discussed detailed preparations “for an Iranian attack against the State of Israel.”

Gallant said an Iranian attack on Israel could lead to a regional escalation.

It is the second discussion held between Gallant and Austin over the past week, according to the statement. Gallant expressed his appreciation for Austin’s personal commitment to the security of the State of Israel and for the deepening cooperation between the defense establishments of both countries, as well as between the Israel Defense Forces and US CENTCOM.

State Department restricts personnel travel in Israel amid concerns over Iranian threats

From CNN's Jennifer Hansler

The US State Department has restricted the travel of US government personnel in Israel in the wake of public threats against Israel by Iran.

“Out of an abundance of caution, U.S. government employees and their family members are restricted from personal travel outside the greater Tel Aviv (including Herzliya, Netanya, and Even Yehuda), Jerusalem, and Be’er Sheva areas until further notice,” a  security alert  posted by the US Embassy Thursday said. “U.S. government personnel are authorized to transit between these three areas for personal travel.” “The security environment remains complex and can change quickly depending on the political situation and recent events,” the alert noted.

State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said he would not “speak to the specific assessments that led to us to restrict our employees and family members’ personal travel, but clearly we are monitoring the threat environment in the Middle East and specifically in Israel.”

“We have seen Iran making public threats against Israel in the past few days,” Miller said. “Israel is in a very tough neighborhood and we have been monitoring the security situation. You saw us slightly adjust for travel warnings at the beginning of this conflict and we conduct ongoing assessments all the time about the situation on the ground.”

US officials are on high alert for a potential retaliatory strike by Iran or its proxies against Israel.

Hamas says ceasefire with Israel is essential to collect data on hostages held in Gaza by different groups

From CNN's Abeer Salman and Mohammed Tawfeeq

A member of Hamas' political bureau said   a prisoner-hostage exchange is being discussed as part of larger ceasefire negotiations.

"Part of negotiations is to reach a ceasefire agreement to have enough time and safety to collect final and more precise data" on the hostages held in Gaza Basem Naim said in a statement on Thursday. "Because they (hostages) are in different palaces, (being held) by different groups, some of them are under the rubble killed with our own people, and we negotiate to get heavy equipment for this purpose," he added.

Naim's statement was in response to questions from media outlets about whether Hamas has been rejecting the latest proposal, which was made in Cairo over the weekend, because it can not release 40 hostages in the first phase of a three-stage ceasefire deal.

According to an Israeli official and a source familiar with the discussions, Hamas indicated it is currently unable to identify and track down those 40 Israeli hostages, raising fears that more hostages may be dead than are publicly known. 

CNN's record of the conditions of the hostages also suggests there are fewer than 40 living hostages who meet the proposed criteria.

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